


The Stones Of Truth by Vulcan Lover

by KSForever



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Alien Planet, Kismet 2016 Competition Entry, M/M, Pon Farr, The Doctor's Office, Visiting a sacred place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 09:39:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10241759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KSForever/pseuds/KSForever
Summary: Kismet Con 2016 Competition Entry. Follows the rules for that contest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Kismet 2016 story comp entry; starts with K&S in alone time on a planet, while they respect that planet's customs & beliefs; culminates in warm, loving, passion-filled times which then bring them even more Blessings and Happy, Hopeful times.

\- Text Size +  
The Stones Of Truth  
(Word Count: 6,839)

“I feared love’s gratuitous emotions; that they would augment my days in bad ways as well as good.” He spoke of why he’d left to pursue the embodiment of Kolinahr, until coming back because of V’Ger still recently. Spock was totally honest, as he lay there, on the plinth, next to the plinth on which Kirk lay; so close that they could reach out to one another physically, if they braved doing so. “I now know that these emotions themselves are not gratuitous, but that their strengths and patterns on the mind can sometimes feel that way. They can work overtime to assert something of which the person feeling them is already aware, not something that is always troublesome, but I feared that emotions; specific feelings, would take me away from myself and my work, when I cannot, or could not, live by them; that they would bring out the truth, that I am more human than Vulcan, and that was something that we both know I didn’t want; as I’d put so many years into proving the opposite, so that I might be accepted by the people on my home planet. Yet now, I have come to accept, that Vulcan and Human sides, both, must actually acknowledge, and enfold emotion, and feelings in general, into who I am, and my feelings for you,” He turned to Jim, looking at him straight, “I do not regret them, or fear them any longer. The truth is, I have no wish to stay away from them a moment longer, T’hy’la. In spite of noting the concerns I harbour for you and I regarding the future of our careers, and facing public, and private, attitudes, of allies and enemies ‘alike’, I do not wish to repress my love; though for instance, I can imagine, as I know you must also be able to, what might be said about James T. Kirk, the known ladies’ man, finally admitting his love for his male first officer, if I were to air my feelings to more than ‘just’ you, – and what would likely be said because we are Captain and First Officer, we cannot dismiss that.”

Jim took in everything Spock was saying, and then, rewound a little to his use of the term T’hy’la. Jim sort of knew what ‘T’hy’la’ meant – at least, in terms of the term itself. They lay, side by side, each on a plinth – on the Heedrans planet; upon sacred, Truth ground, partaking in a private ritual they had been encouraged to undertake. Laying upon the ‘Stones of Truth’ at dusk, here, until they had supposedly spoken every truth to one another, or ‘laid things to rest’, whatever those things may be – every person had unspoken truths to tell another. Every high-ranking guest of honour, diplomat, or dignitary, was invited here, to this place of halloed-ground, in this large patch of land. Peace talks, and conferences, had been held here. Now, Jim and Spock were here, adding to its tapestry of truths, and Jim did not look away from Spock.

“If deeper studies of these plinths of stone were allowed, I believe we would find that the stone material itself, perhaps, or the low sprigs of vegetation, exudes some kind of natural truth serum, or a ‘field’ that induces the mind; the ‘field’ being projected onto, into, or around, us, as though it might be described as some kind of aura. I have considered, as have others before me, that there might be stealth technology involved, some kind of monitoring and spying; yet, my own findings, and all other studies of which I am aware, seem to prove that this is not the case.” Spock said, as he got up from the plinth on which he lay, and looked around it, and back at Jim. The grass beneath his feet as he turned, was a soft fern-like greyish-green, or, mauve heather/lavender-like in colour, though its pleasant scent was like neither Earth plant;- and much as part of Spock wanted to concentrate on peripherals like this, picked up by all his other senses; which tried to keep him on the straight and narrow Vulcan path; he did listen to the side of his mind that wanted to scream at him, ‘Stay with Jim; don’t turn away, bringing forth distraction, now that you’ve said aloud how you know you feel. Even Vulcans feel love.’

Jim looked at his friend, his first officer, his love. “Spock…” He began to try and say something, yet more than he’d spoken here, of his own.

“I believe we should be allowed to leave now.” Spock stated in the next moment.

In fact, there weren’t any people nearby, but Spock’s statement alluded to how long he and Jim had been at this Holy site; a respectful enough time… The dusk hews of this planet’s sky, similar to Earth, yet more vivid somehow; pinks, purples, oranges, yellows; the sky was littered, and glittered, with these colours; and, even though dusk was definitely approaching, the colours that bled into one another, were none the less vibrant – in fact, they would still be visible somewhat, because of this planet’s atmosphere, in its darker night sky, appearing to be velvety in texture.

___

“Bones, I shouldn’t be talking to you about this.” Jim fathomed, as he sat in the good Doctor’s shipboard office with him a week after the good will visit to Heedra. “He would…” Jim’s voice trailed off. “He would, at least, deep down, dislike me greatly for sharing this information with you. I should talk to him, if anyone. Yet, I’m here, because I’m worried about Spock.”

“For loving you?” McCoy asked.

“Not for that, exactly. Since he made his admission, since we both did, that evening… Well, we’re continuing as normal.” Jim responded. “Talking about work; about schedules, duties, chess. He seems to be putting extra time and effort into making sure everything can go back to normal between us. I thought he would avoid me – but he isn’t, thank God. I’m not complaining about that because I’m relieved that he’s not ‘ignoring’ me, but I can sense somehow that he’s not just hanging around me because of emotions even now left unvoiced; he’s hanging out with me to put himself through it – to prove to himself and me, and whoever else he might think has reason enough to watch, that things are as ever they were – and, like I said, we are continuing on with life as normal.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve always done?” Leonard H. McCoy queried kindly.

“Are you saying that we have, Spock and I, been in love already, for years?” Kirk asked, looking to his other best friend, Leonard McCoy, M.D. “Spock told me he’s been in love with me for years.”

 

“You’re worried about him because he finally admitted that?” McCoy ‘guessed’.

“I know what the Stones do; what Legend says and all, but he finally said it, Bones. Our Spock. You know him. You’ve known him for years, like me, and he” Jim paused for emphasis. “He finally told me, ‘I love you.’” As Jim said those words, formed that sentence out loud, he caught sight of Spock on the other side of McCoy’s office door.

The door slid back to give Spock admittance.

Walking in to the room, Spock turned to Jim. “I have been consulting with the Doctor because you are right to have been concerned.” He told Jim, once the sound proof doors had slid shut behind him, sealing the office again. He then looked to McCoy.

‘Could he overhear me?’ Jim thought, ‘through the privacy glass that surrounds us?’

“Spock’s Pon Farr is a factor here, and it also was, on the planet.” McCoy explained.

“It’s started?” Jim asked quietly.

Spock nodded. He then moved across the room, collected up a chair, and placed it next to Jim, opposite the Doctor’s desk. He sat on the chair rather tiredly, yet he knew that he, likely, would not be able to rest there. “I do not expect you to partner me through it. I will return to Vulcan, and ask to be matched with someone, if only for the duration of my Pon Farr. I would not talk of these things, so openly, even with my Physician,” Spock glanced at the man he’d just mentioned, McCoy. “Normally… But he is here and you are here, and the conversation has been started for me.”

“You told me, while we lay on those plinths, that you have loved me since the end of the first year of our first tour of duty.” Jim recalled vividly.

Spock nodded again.

“Then, why, when T’Pring rejected you, did you not just make love to me then? Why not tell me, and ‘take me to your bed’, as such, back then..?” Jim thought aloud.

“We were not alone, for me to tell you; we are still Captain and Commander, and we were then; for that reason, but mostly, many others, I did not think that you would want, that you would be interested, in sex with me. Yet fighting with me seemed something you were willing to do, and that was my last coherent thought; that, and that my body begged me to be fighting you, as T’Pring instructed, for the outstanding chance that I might still be able to be with T’Pring, that she might still, somehow, accept me enough to save my life; I thought it, but it was as though the Pon Farr in me thought and demanded it even more than I did. Due to all this and more, I could not tell that you might already have felt love for me. My touch telepathy was overwhelmed; clouded by my own situation.” Spock reiterated. “I hate, to this day, that I fought you, that I didn’t continue to plead with T’Pau for leniency, or brave listening to the other instinctual voice that wanted to compel by body into asking you to be my partner, in spite of everything else we were to one another; part of me wanted love to be the factor that took precedence. I craved to stand up there as I was, and tell you, and the people around us, that I wanted you; that I need you. I still cannot abide that I lost myself to the blood fever. The second you lay as still as you did, I was, quite honestly, terrified, that I might be feeling our still nucleic bond breaking; that I had indeed killed you. I detest that I went as far as to apparently kill you.”

“I know that you do.” Jim gradually reached out to hold, or at least, pat, Spock’s hand again. “It wasn’t your fault. That’s the truth of it. I mean that. You stopped the minute you thought that you’d actually hurt me. It was McCoy who told you, who had to tell you, for all our sakes, that I’d died.”

“He’s right about that, Spock.” McCoy joined the conversation. “You should listen to him.”

After acknowledging McCoy’s words as discreetly as he could, Spock, once again, turned to Jim. “I will leave to relieve my Pon Farr with someone else; someone the Healers will find for me, at least physically compatible. I will leave soon.” He promised.

“I don’t want that for you.” Jim looked into Spock’s eyes.

“It might not be ideal, but it will do.” Spock was starkly honest. 

“No.” Jim squeezed Spock’s hand. “No.” He said again. “I don’t want that for you, Spock, because I do love you.”

“I know that you do. You care.” Spock replied.

“I love you, T’hy’la. I love you.” Jim smiled, at himself and Spock, hoping that Spock would understand him. “I would have told you as much, if you’d stayed laying down, talking to me. I’d just grown my own ‘stones of truth’, and I think that we should continue to do so, together, to deal with this. To finally face how we feel.”

“I think I understand.” Spock digested what Jim had just said. “And I dare, perhaps, selfishly, to agree.”

“I don’t believe that you’re selfish, Spock, and if we’re selfish by choosing to be together at last, then, we can deal with that too.”

“You wish to be with me, even after this Pon Farr has passed?” Spock asked.

“Yes, I do.” Jim said simply, as he caressed Spock’s hand. “And I will be, if you’ll have me?”

“I wish that also.” Spock voiced at last.

“But?” Jim sensed something.

Spock shook his head. “You would have me, even after last time?”

“That was the blood fever, which is not the Pon Farr, is it, Doctor?” Jim turned to Bones.

“They are not the same thing. Pon Farr starts it all; The Blood Fever ends it all – only if the Pon Farr has not been, or cannot be, answered, and the body actually reaches the point where it realises this.” McCoy noted. “I know that I am an outsider, but I have worked hard to get some research done on this, medically speaking, especially knowing that you two might one day finally ‘fess up enough to do something about it.” McCoy confessed himself.

“Understandable. You do not wish any harm to come to Jim.” Spock noted.

“Or you, Spock. Or you.” McCoy tried to assure the man/Vulcan. “And by that, I don’t mean that I know you’ll hurt if you ever hurt him again – which I don’t think you will – hurt Jim that is. You should trust yourself, Spock. Trust.”

 

Spock glanced gratefully at McCoy, and let himself do so, for many reasons; gratitude a friend deserved to be shown, and because, as a Vulcan, Spock’s Pon Farr, was slowing up his repression mechanisms.

Jim watched the moment, and added to it, when Spock turned back to him. “Let me help you, Spock. I’m in love with you. I think we should try to be together.” The words came pouring out of him, and Jim wondered if he was already somewhat bonded to Spock in the sense of T’hy’la, and if Pon Farr were ridding him of his inhibitions, too.

“You believe our judgement to be thwarted?” Spock suddenly asked, just barely picking up on Jim’s thoughts.

“No.” Jim said firmly. “I promise you that I do not think that. In fact, I think we might at last be coming to our senses.”

“Amen to that.” McCoy stated quietly. Then, he had to ask, “So, does this mean that you two will be needing my family planning advice?”

Spock looked to Jim. “There is something more I should admit to.” He began. “Something that I believe Doctor McCoy has known in general, and about me personally, for some time. He may have even alluded to it when my father had his heart attack on the way to the Babel Conference, and he told you that he had studied all the text books on the existing anatomical types with regards to Vulcans.” Spock paused, and, shakily, drew breath. “Although it has been medically determined that I cannot help a partner to conceive a child – a fact which I wish my Pon Farr would also heed; I am actually of the Vulcan male anatomical type that, while being, and remaining, male, can supposedly gestate and give birth to a child – or I could, if my hybrid status did not make me barren, according to all past medical tests.”

McCoy leant forward in his chair. “So, you see, Jim, that’s why you do need my family planning advice; contraceptives, and such. You both have a clean bill of health concerning S.T.D’s, but, just to be absolutely sure, because the possibility might exist, and I’m sure that if Spock were thinking straight, he could tell you the odds,”

“I could.” Spock interjected.

“… I have to make sure that you and Spock are stocked up, and dosed up, on Contraceptives; that is, if that’s what you want?” McCoy noted.

“Alright then.” Jim answered. “Let’s do what we need to.”

“I do not admit often to the fact that I am of this midling kind of male gender.” Spock looked to Jim, and to their, now, for some time clasped hands. “Does it make any difference, Jim?”

“Not at all!” Jim was utterly genuine, and immediate to answer. “We’re all different. There are lots of different genders, and gender bending roles out there. We live in the twenty third century, Spock. I know that – and, I am so grateful for it – and grateful for you, and this wake-up call from our love.” Jim knew his words were quick, but he hoped that they were clear.

“As am I, Ashaya – but I am quite different, even for a Vulcan, or standard half Vulcan, human hybrid. Not many of my specific type of Vulcan male gender exist. It’s just another way in which I know I am different, and another way that I would, undoubtedly, be seen as different by many, if they were to find out.” Spock confided.

“I love you, Spock, regardless of the opinions and attitudes of others – and I know you trust me as much as I trust you – I’m telling you that you should not feel different, inadequate or inferior, – Not because you shouldn’t let yourself actually feel or express that or any set of emotions, but because there is no need for you to feel those things in regards to yourself, and your life as you live it. You are not inferior or inadequate or any other such thing that you might worry about, albeit quietly, on the days when you might be struggling.” Jim pledged honestly.

A tear came from one of Spock’s eyes, and rolled down his cheek, as he and Jim continued to hold hands.

The three men in the room were silent for a time. Time that McCoy took to examine the knowledge that he was very privileged to be so trusted, so much that he was being allowed to witness this gentle, gradual gathering of precious and pivotal moments, from Spock, and from Jim, too.

Spock and Jim, individually of one another’s thought processes, also realised, as this whole conversation/truth had unfolded, that they, too, were very privileged, now more than ever; for they now had one another in every way.

After several minutes, McCoy spoke. “Let me help you get your meds sorted, so that the two of you can go off, and start getting Pon Farr dealt with for another seven years; start the next step in living the rest of your lives – together- please, God.” He pushed his seat back from his desk, and placing his hands on the edge of that desk, rose to his feet, looking at his friends, sitting before him, and trusting him to help them.

___

Spock and Jim went back together to Spock’s Quarters, and with shaking voice and hands, as the door ‘whooshed’ shut, Spock asked the computer to set the temperature in his room(s) to one that Jim could stand, that would still be warmer than if they were in the Captain’s Quarters now; warm enough to suit his admittedly, currently hotter than ever, Vulcan blood.

Jim walked up behind Spock, and gently touched his shoulder.

Spock turned on his heel, not surprised exactly, but unable to hold back his reactions. He savoured Jim’s touch.

“It will be okay.” Jim promised. “More than okay.”

“Jim, I will always keep in mind to treat you kindly and carefully, but if I get to a point where I don’t realise my own strength in the moment, you must tell me. You must not be afraid to make it clear.” Spock informed Jim in no uncertain terms; his voice ringing strong in that second.

“I will.” Jim pledged. “I am not afraid of you, Spock. I know you will look after me, and I you.”

“I will endeavour never to give you reason to fear me.” Spock answered, moving closer, reaching out his trembling hands to hold Jim’s hands, and begin an O’zhesta kiss between them. He then moved closer still, holding one of Jim’s hands tenderly, pressed to both their chests, and he kissed Jim on the lips. His spoken voice showed signs of cracking from the stresses and strains of his body’s greatly desirous needs, but his inward voice, shared in their blossoming, melding minds, was strong and even more love-filled. “Please, lay with me?” He asked permission from Jim, using that inner voice through the channels of their melding. All the while, he kissed Jim.

Jim, at first gingerly, joined the kiss – and marvelled at just how amazing it felt; at how amazing Spock felt to kiss, and how amazing Spock himself was feeling right now, not holding back, and sharing every revelation with Jim. It was instant, somehow, and over-clarified, super oxygenated, even as it was also hazy from time to time – not that every move they each made was perfect, but that ‘top of the world’ feeling; the opening up of new acres of joy in the metaphysical heart of each soul, that was there. It probably had always been waiting for them, and, as their minds and bodies joined, no emotion was too much – none of their emotions were gratuitous; all were held and embraced and met and nurtured; the new territory stretched before them, beautifully lit, warm and wonderful. All encompassed, augmented, and further inspired, every instinctual, sexual move as it was made. Every moment furthered the next, furthered what they were doing; were already building.

Every vestige of clothing that each was wearing, soon, was given to the floor. Twining together already, they walked to Spock’s bed, and barely took their hands off of each other as they climbed on to it.

Jim had, moments ago, taken the lube container from one of his pockets, before he and Spock had tossed their clothes on to the deck. He held the lube in the palm of his hand, opened it, and spread some of it on his palms first, before putting the lube aside. His hands lowered, joining with Spock’s again, and he massaged Spock’s beautiful body.

Spock spread, and brushed the lube, caressing it into Jim’s skin, too, slipping it over the relevant muscles; his touches somehow sure, yet tentative.

Jim watched and felt his lover’s every move; such hot anticipation, such certain love and trust. He moved his legs, lifted them, when Spock touched him, and they both knew the time was right. It was gradual, and yet, there was such a need to all of it –not just the need placed there by Pon Farr – it was the need of facing, of finding the answers to a lifetime of questions, some realised, some not, the answers of each man/man-Vulcan (Vulcan-man), questions contained by their souls; souls which, now together, breathed far more deeply, much more expansively than ever they had before; continuing now, upon the bed, the deeply sexual, deeply loving intercourse that had begun even as they had earlier ‘just’ stood before one another. Jim felt his breath rushing in to his lungs, taking him somehow higher on the scale of Euphoria; he sighed, he yearned, he moved, and felt it all as Spock did, and as Spock did it all, absolutely with him in every moment of it –despite the definite effects the Pon Farr’s gruelling life, had been having on Spock’s body. The love they were making, hot and heavy as well as delightfully unburdening and remarkably refreshing, it was starting in this already awesome, unfurling way, but they both knew it would carry on even beyond this,, the love and the expression of it, would only get greater and more varied, even before this shipboard night was through… Ill as Pon Farr could make the Vulcan suffering it; it did mean that while that Vulcan was giving the Pon Farr the answer it needed, said Vulcan could truly employ and enjoy plentiful sexual stamina – and, said Vulcan being Spock, Jim, as his partner, was greatly enjoying this stamina of his beloved Vulcan, and being inspired to reciprocate, with reserves of his own great stamina, too.

__ ___

So soon after their previous similar visit, they were back in McCoy’s office. Spock had asked Jim to meet him there.

McCoy looked at them both, sitting the other side of his desk as they were. “This is going to change your lives, my friends. For the good again, hopefully.”

Spock knew then. “I am pregnant?” He asked for confirmation.

“Yes.” McCoy replied clearly.

Jim reached out to Spock instinctively, searching for his hand to hold.

Both Spock himself, and McCoy, were relieved to see this – and Spock caressed Jim’s fingers as discreetly as possible.

“Unlikely as it apparently was; some medical text books might need to be re-written. You two have managed it. You’ve conceived a baby.” McCoy gave them the news.

\- --

After another pre-natal scan, in the weeks since McCoy first broke the news that Spock had already then suspected; he and Jim had fathered a child; They’d just walked from Sickbay, knowing that they both had some decisions to make for their relationship, and their baby’s future. They chose to enter into Spock’s Quarters because they still officially had separate Quarters – and, Jim then lay with Spock, on his bed, as he’d just managed to convince Spock that he, Spock, needed to rest. They lay facing one another, and Jim was reminded of how they had laid, because they’d changed from laying on their backs, to gradually turning to face one another, on the Stones of Truth, on Heedra. He smiled, so grateful.

“My pregnancy does not change your feelings?” Spock asked.

“You know it doesn’t. Look deeper, Spock. You can. I don’t need any privacy about this, from the bond, or mind melds…” Jim promised.

Spock took time to let himself be reassured by following Jim’s true, deep running feelings about this new development for them. “You want to walk away from those that could judge us harshly for this?” Spock asked Jim.

“Yes. I find I’m actually happy at the thought of retiring, or, at least, stepping down from front line duty – Now that I’ve got you, and especially now that I’m going to be a father again… I’m at peace, Spock. Content – something I thought would never be mine to experience, until I heard you tell me that you’re in love with me for the first time. You said ‘I love you’, and, suddenly, the chance of new chances that I thought weren’t ever going to be offered to me, began to dawn on me.” Jim admitted warmly. “Carol didn’t even offer me to the chance to be David’s father. She just told me to get lost. For so long, I thought, what terrible kind of man, in my personal life, must I be, that she didn’t want me around at all – and, again, when my brother and Aurellan died, and Peter, when offered the chance, said he wanted to go and live with his Dad and Mom’s colleagues; I just thought, how selfish must I be; they must be able to tell I’m terribly so; Carol, David, Peter, his adoptive parents. I should have tried harder to prove to them all. I know that – and I will prove to you, and to our child, that I love you both.”

Spock kissed Jim with the O’zhesta. “We know that.”

The implications of Spock’s words ‘hit’ Jim.

“I have been feeling, each day, since McCoy told us of our son’s existence, his life progressively coming into being inside of me – and I think that he and I are now, rudimentarily, aware of one another’s emotions, Jim.” Spock told the co-father of his child.

Jim tried to hide sudden tears, and he moved to gently place his hands on Spock’s pregnancy bump. After what seemed to him like a long time, Jim looked up, and into Spock’s eyes. “This isn’t all about old scars healing for me. I genuinely love you both, and want to always be around for you, whenever you might need me. From the moment you actually said you love me, Spock, new doors honestly did start opening up, in my mind, in my heart, my soul. I know that we will both always need to work in some way; I’m even thinking of going back and re-opening my family’s old Ranch – and I know that Starfleet might tell us never to darken their door again, but I also know that we will have to offer to still be around for them should they ever need us – Perhaps, it’s big headed of me to think that they ever might. I know that there are other Starfleet Officers out there, who are Pioneers, as much as we are or were or are… Whatever… What I’m trying to make sure you understand, is that I am one hundred and ten percent happy about this. I want this life, this staying together, this family unit, for us; as much as I’ve ever wanted to be Captain of a Starship; Captain of Enterprise – as much as the time I took Command from Will Decker – as much as the moment I first dreamed of being Captain James T. Kirk, as much as the first time I ever realised that I could be a Starfleet Captain. I’m not going to get bored of this, and run off into the stars again, the same way I got bored of planet-side life in the two and a half years after the close of Enterprise’s first Five Year Tour of Duty. I’m ready to go home with you, wherever you want home to be, and make a home life for our baby boy. I’ll gladly let there be another Captain of this ship we call home for now. I think they might offer her to Sulu – and I trust him. He’ll treat her right. Now is the time for me to treat you right.”

“Tu Dena Val, my Ashaya and T’hy’la. We will look after each other, and our son.” Spock mentioned their unswerving devotion to one another, and let it fill his soul; that knowledge that Jim held such devotion for him and their child; hoping that the baby would, somehow, know it, too. “I too am ready for this change in the lives, in the life, of Jim Kirk and Spock of Vulcan. I, too, look forward to this new life. You need not worry, Jim; that I will consider my brain unchallenged, my career unfulfilled.

Jim smiled. “Good.” He embraced Spock, caressing his elegant arms. “We will inform our superiors of our plans, work out our notice. I’m surprised that they haven’t pushed us to go sooner. They must be more than peripherally aware of our status now; what with the very honest reports we’ve had to file in recent months; if we’d had more urgent missions on the calendar lately, I think they would have already ordered you and I to step down.”

“If it will free us to step up into this new life ahead, then, I do not mind.” Spock figured.

“Me either.” Jim promised truthfully, as he hoped and prayed that everything would work out well for his new family. He worried about thinking about the odds that everything would, or wouldn’t, work out perfectly, in front of Spock – but, at the same time, he knew that Spock was already thinking about these aspects, too.

In absolute and deep seated truth, they dared to hope that their best efforts would be good enough to keep their son, and themselves, healthy and happy, for a long life together.

Jim knew that he believed in God, in spite of how easy it would be to just believe that God had only ever been ‘just another alien’… James T. Kirk believed in God in some truly Divine, Holy all-encompassing, unexplainable in this realm, type of form; Jim was no push over about what that might mean, but even after a lifetime of meeting supposedly Omnipotent beings; Jim Kirk did Believe; deep inside his psyche and his soul, and so he just hoped that God could hear, and would indeed heed, his prayers. Please, let them all embrace this wonderful new life. He turned to Spock and asked. “Will you marry me? I know we still have our reasons to be discreet, and protective, now more than ever, but will you marry me, T’hy’la?”

“You want to experience another Vulcan marriage ceremony?” Spock queried.

“This one won’t be like the last experience – and, I don’t mind if it’s Vulcan based, Earth Based, or Federation Humanoid Agreed Standard, in certificate and ceremony; any of them or a mix of all three - I just want to actually marry you, to add that day, that Certificate and Ceremony, that Agreement, to the T’hy’la Bond.” Jim explained.

“Yes, I will marry you, James T. Kirk.” Spock promised, pulling Jim into his loving arms.

“What do you think your parents will think?” Jim asked, as for long moments, he and Spock hugged.

“I think that they will be happy that I have found for myself the happiness and extended family unit they tried to provide me with by Betrothing me to T’Pring.” Spock answered.

Jim caressed Spock’s lips, his fingers, his back. “Next question, having the Wedding Ceremony on Heedra might be a bit much, but what about the Honeymoon?”

“If we have time to have a Honeymoon before our child arrives, I do not think that I will want to spend it lying on hard slabs of stone – no matter how grateful I will always be to the fact that said stones were part of our Catalyst Moment, or moments.”

“They were a bit uncomfortable, weren’t they?” Jim laughed. “Part of their magic, I suppose; hurry up and admit the truth so that you can go home to a comfy bed!”

“And, as in our case, make love in it.” Spock recollected.

Jim grinned, and gently pulled Spock in for a kiss of their lips. “I love you, Spock.”

“And I love you, James T. Kirk.” Spock admitted again. He would never truly deny that love again.

__ ____

The wedding took place in a vast, tall, beautiful (Jim kept looking around, at the Hall, and the reason they were all gathered here; finding it all Beautiful) Hall on Vulcan, and the ceremony was, as they’d talked about – a combination of Vulcan, Human, and Federation Agreed Upon Standard.

Guests were few, but gladly welcomed. On Spock’s side: his mother and father, his half-brother Sybok (On a rare visit home for the sake of his ‘little’ brother) and Sarek and Amanda’s recently adopted daughter, the Vulcan-Romulan young woman, Saavik (Sarek was currently fighting to convince Starfleet that it was truly safe to allow a half Romulan to join Starfleet – Spock was, at least, gratified that he had proven to his father that Vulcans being in Starfleet is a good idea), as Sarek also had been campaigning within the Federation to convince them it was okay to let a half Romulan live so closely in the life of himself, as he was indeed one of their Chief Diplomats – a possible target for spies and terrorists.); also attending the wedding, wereAmanda’s siblings – Zoe-Faith, her eldest sister, a Botanist, who brought with her, her husband, Yoshi Ishikawa, also a Botanist, who hailed from Japan, Earth, where Spock’s Aunt had set up her marital home with her husband. As it turned out, Zoe’s husband’s relatives lived very near to Sulu’s family, in their shared home country, and Jim reflected that, if Sulu had been able to attend the wedding, instead of being asked to Captain Enterprise for yet another mission that took him, and Jim and Spock’s other close friends and colleagues of yesteryear, away from Earth at this time; the now Captain Sulu would have much enjoyed the chance to talk to Yoshi about their other shared interest; Botany.). Victoria – a Genealogist, Amanda’s younger sister, and Spock’s other Aunt from the maternal side of his family, also attended the wedding – and brought with her, her daughter (Spock’s cousin) Shekhina-Julianna– a Violinist. Amanda’s brother, her only brother, and youngest Sibling, Adam, an artist; photographer and poet, also came to the wedding. All of this was very handy for said wedding. Zoe and her husband did the flowers. Victoria made Spock and Jim a ‘family tree’ as a wedding gift – and Adam took a few much cherished photos for them – not that photos were big at the usual Vulcan wedding; Shekhina, or ‘SJ’ as she was often called, (because Victoria had decided to give her daughter two names – as was sometimes done in the Grayson family’s history) played several pieces of Violin music throughout the Ceremony, and Reception afterward. Shekhina was a name that her mother, the rather Bohemian Victoria, found mentioned in the Jewish faith of her Ancestors. The Jewish faith was still alive in some branches of the Grayson family to this day, and SJ, (who had been named to signify this) who was a very talented young woman, played truly Beautiful compositions of music that she’d written especially for another ‘SJ’ – Spock and Jim – on their wedding day… Also able to attend the wedding, their friend Leonard McCoy and his daughter, Joanna; the two had arrived from Georgia, where Leonard H. McCoy had set up a G.P Doctors Surgery… Then, representing Jim’s side of the family; his nephew, Peter, a young Scientist continuing some of his father, George Samuel’s, work, also made it to the Wedding. Jim was so pleased to have Peter here. David was deep within the planning stages of a scientific project that both he and his mother were working on, but he had promised that he would visit his father and Spock, for a ‘meal out’ soon. Jim hoped all would go well, in spite of fearing, realistically, that it wouldn’t.  
___

Two weeks before the birth of their son, Spock and Jim came to live, at least for a month long period, possibly longer, on Vulcan; in a ‘cottage’ in the grounds of Sarek and Spock’s Ancestral Home. There (with occasional overnight stays at the local Healers Centre), Spock had been prepared for the scheduled Caesarean Section, and the birth in general. Jim waited, standing by Spock, as ever, and did a lot of hoping, praying, and thinking, as he did so.

_ _ _

Now, Jim sat beside a bed at the Healers Centre to which they’d travelled, again, yesterday – a bed in which his sleeping husband/T’hy’la, his wonderful Spock, lay – and he, Jim, held their darling son in his grateful, hopeful, awe-struck, and yet, still, cautious, arms. “You are here. You are actually here!” He kept whispering to their new-born son, to Shahnn’Tok-James Grayson Sarek Samuel George Kirk of Vulcan (and written the proper Vulcan way, his name was even longer; though he would likely just be known as Shahn, or ‘SJ’ – a name that symbolised/paid homage to the grateful union of his parents – and echoed the usage of the initials as a name already existing within the Grayson family - a ‘happy coincidence’, as the human side of the family termed it, and a reminder of that Beautiful music, a gift, that somehow so embodied what Jim and Spock felt on the day of their marriage, and continued to feel now; though now, of course, as was also the case before, they made their own beautiful music, and knew it to be the gift that they gave one another; it was a cliche to say that they made beautiful music together, but Jim, and even Spock, knew –it was so true). “I am here with you;” Jim promised SJ, as he looked into the bright eyes of the baby boy he cradled so carefully. “and your amazing, beautiful father, Spock, is here with you. He is sleeping right now because the Doctors and I repeatedly told him earlier, that he really needs to let himself have a rest;” Jim paused fractionally. “But he is definitely here with you, always, as I will forever be. We love you very much, son.” Jim promised the boy, and even as he did so, he recalled what Spock told him during the pregnancy, about being aware of the baby’s emotional development; so, as Jim was praying, as ever, that this would be the start of a glorious and very long life for their child; he was, simultaneously, thinking: ‘I hope that you already know for certain that we love you.’ Jim also wished for their son, a life that was like a Beautiful musical composition, consisting of long lasting, never tedious and ever prosperous music; James T. Kirk hoped, as well, that this was another new start in a long and very happy life for himself and Spock; May the family each live by, and live up to, the very wise Vulcan proverb; ‘Live Long and Prosper’.


End file.
